


A broken mask harms more than it hides

by aroseandapen



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24293380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroseandapen/pseuds/aroseandapen
Summary: Following a traumatizing kidnapping experience, Kaito and Shuichi do their best to comfort Kokichi, no matter how much he tries to hide how deeply it affects him. A two-shot of hurt/comfort.
Relationships: Momota Kaito/Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 9
Kudos: 240





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an older work, each part written as a request fill from my tumblr [aroseandapen](http://aroseandapen.tumblr.com). As of posting this, I'm not currently accepting more requests, but I'll eventually be opening it up again if you want to stick around.
> 
> This might actually have 3 parts, but I've only found 2 so far.

Kokichi winced at Kaito’s volume. He turned it into a pout, digging a finger into his ear as he affected an air of nonchalance. Sitting cross-legged on the couch, where he’d just shown up out of the blue, he looked almost like a child about to be scolded by their parents. “Yeah, obviously. Geez, you don’t have to be so loud about it,” he mumbled in a childish tone.

As if he hadn’t been missing for an entire week, leaving both Kaito and Shuichi desperately worried with no word from him.

“What the hell do you mean ‘obviously’? You fucking disappeared on us, what do you expect us to think!” Kaito stomped over to the couch, looking like he very much wanted to grab Kokichi and shake him.

Shuichi could understand the sentiment. He’d been just as worried, and to see Kokichi brushing off their concerns now both hurt and angered him. Yet he didn’t miss the way that Kokichi tensed as Kaito approached him so aggressively. It lasted onto a second, before it whisked away with Kokichi rising to his feet, hands tucked behind his head.

“Geez I can’t believe you think so little of me. I’m the Ultimate Supreme Leader of evil, ya know. I get baddies targeting me aaaaaaall the time, so a little kidnapping isn’t a big deal for me.”

That took some of the wind out of Kaito’s sails, although perhaps not for the reason that Kokichi intended. He froze, and for a second he couldn’t think to do anything but blink. “A… a _what_? ‘Kidnapping’? Kokichi, _what happened to you_?”

Shuichi watched as Kokichi’s expression wiped blank, looking surprised. Like everything else about him, the bit of truth startled out of him lasted mere seconds before he replaced it with yet another mask, grinning wryly up at Kaito.

“Oh, that was a lie. I didn’t think Kaito would get so worried over me saying something like that, so oopsie!” Kokichi laughed, but there was tension in his giggles. “I was actually just out for a walk, and I lost track of time. Sowwy, guys.”

“ _Kokichi_!”

It was like going up against a brick wall, Shuichi realized. Something had happened that Kokichi didn’t want to talk to them about–someone had kidnapped him, if his reaction was to be believed. A truth wrapped up in lies, trying to play things off as less important than they really were.

The way Kokichi winced at Kaito yelling, tensing up when he stopped nearer, if his mask was pressed so tightly over his own face, then he had to be a lot less ‘alright’ than even slipped through the cracks.

“Kokichi…” Shuichi’s voice was gentler when he spoke, and he hoped that Kaito would pick up on it as well. It was easy to get wrapped up in high emotions, knowing something happened to their boyfriend and seeing him brush it off. Trying to force him to acknowledge it would get them nowhere, however.

Kokichi could dig his heels in hard, no matter how much he was yanked at.

As Shuichi drew closer, Kokichi’s eyes flickered towards him, and when Shuichi reached out his arms as if to wrap them around him, he flinched.

So he remained where he was, arms held out and waiting for Kokichi to choose to accept the embrace or not. A minute passed, until he began to feel silly for how he was standing. Yet after another minute, Kokichi finally moved, entering the warm circle of Shuichi’s arms.

While Kokichi didn’t return the embrace, he stood close, his face pressed wordlessly into Shuichi’s chest.

“We know something happened to you, please don’t try and pretend it didn’t. You were gone for days and we were so worried about you,” he said, holding Kokichi close. “You don’t have to talk about it, but we’re both here for you, whatever you need from us.”

Kokichi didn’t move his face from Shuichi’s chest, but he grabbed blindly for Kaito, still standing to the side. When he caught the end of his shirt, he tugged, and Kaito stepped closer to them.

“‘m fine,” he insisted, the words muffled into his shirt. After a pause though, he added, “You guys could just… hug me for a little while, if you want y’know…”

Once Kaito wrapped his arms around them both, they stood here for some amount of time, which felt like an hour but could’ve only been a few minutes. Shuichi lost track, his mind focused on the boy in his arms, and the slight tremor he could feel running through him. At some point, he could feel Kokichi’s shoulders shaking, the front of his shirt growing wet from where Kokichi still buried his face into it.

He didn’t mention it, and allowed Kokichi to cry it out in silence, but the way Kaito’s arms squeezed around them told him that he’d noticed it, too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi isn't ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Mentions of kidnapping and strangulation**

Kokichi awoke with a gasp beside him, limbs jerking as if to wrench himself from sleep. The abrupt movement startled Shuichi. He set hurriedly laid his book aside, face down beneath the small illuminated lamp of the bedside table, turning over so that he could look down into the hazy purples of his boyfriend’s eyes.

Shuichi touched his cheek. “Kokichi–.”

“No!” The word ripped out of him, almost unwillingly as he flinched away from his touch. With his eyes screwed shut, he turned his face away. “Please don’t!”

Something sharp twisted in Shuichi’s gut. Biting his lip, Shuichi tried again, this time threading his hand through the sweaty locks of Kokichi’s hair. If he reacted poorly again, he’d withdraw and find another way to calm him, he told himself.

Fortunately, Kokichi did no such thing. Although his eyes remained tightly closed and a tremor ran through his body, he neither pulled away nor made another outburst. Shuichi did nothing for a while, only petting Kokichi’s hair until the shaking began to subside, and bit by bit his lids began to open again.

For a moment, Kokichi looked scared and vulnerable. His face was unnaturally pale, mouth tight, and the bags beneath his eyes betrayed a lack of sleep due to the nightmares he often had as of late. Shuichi wanted to kiss his fears away, but didn’t know if that’d be welcome so he continued to only stroke Kokichi’s head until recognition reached his eyes.

By then Kaito had begun to stir at Kokichi’s other side. When he flipped over to face them, groaning from sleep, the vulnerability in Kokichi’s expression vanished, replaced by a blank mask ill-fitted over his face.

“Mmmn, what’s wrong?” Kaito said, voice heavy and slurred as he struggled into wakefulness.

Shuichi saw Kokichi stiffen, though his eyes didn’t leave Shuichi’s face. It took him a minute to answer. He imagined the conflict running through his mind, whether to tell the truth or to lie, although he could see none of it in the stillness of Kokichi’s expression.

Finally he spoke, his voice broken and tiny. “Nothing, just a nightmare.”

“Nightmare, huh?”

Kaito wrapped his arms around Kokichi’s waist. Shuichi saw him stiffen for a moment, before he relaxed into the embrace.

“Gross, you’re all sweaty, Kaito,” he muttered, moving closer into Kaito’s broad chest, chasing after comfort he wouldn’t admit to needing.

“You’re the sweaty one, dumbass,” Kaito returned, his insult without bite. His arms squeezed Kokichi. Since Kokichi first reappeared after the incident that had left him so shaken and his nights devoid of sleep, Kaito found it better for them all to not pressure him to answer heavy questions.

And it seemed to help. Kokichi let tiny bits of information slip past his lips about what happened to him and how he was feeling. Tonight was no different. As Shuichi gave up on reading for the night, shutting off the lamp and laying down at Kokichi’s other side, he could see the tears in Kokichi’s eyes forming in the dark of the room.

“The nightmare… I dreamed that I couldn’t get untied. They were going to choke me to death, I couldn’t breathe,” he said, his voice so quiet that they could only hear it because of the utter silence of their shared bedroom.

Both Kaito and Shuichi inched even closer, their arms each encircling the boy between them.

“You’re safe now,” Shuichi murmured into the top of Kokichi’s head, his disheveled hair ticking his nose.

“Yeah,” Kaito affirmed. “I’m not gonna let anyone even _touch_ you ever again, I swear it.”

Kokichi _laughed_ at that, the sound broken like glass shards that pierced Shuichi’s gut. He felt sick listening to it. In their arms, Kokichi shook–with laughter, with sobbing, with both at the same time. He didn’t turn to either one of them, staring straight up at the ceiling with a desperate twist of his expression.

“Dummy… I hope you can keep that promise to me,” he said, smile crooked and frozen. “You know I hate liars.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi might finally be ready to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Warning: Mentions of kidnapping**
> 
> I thought I only had 2 fics written for this scenario, but then I found a third.

Sometimes Kokichi couldn’t get out of bed. The sun had long since brightened up the messy clutter of their bedroom, and both Kaito had Shuichi had gotten up for the day. They’d each tried to get him up as well, but after some loud whining and dragging the blanket securely over his head, they left Kokichi to it.

So there he was. At first he’d intended to go back to sleep until he felt better, but after an hour of staring at the closet door–just slightly ajar, but he tried not to think about it–he realized that would be a useless venture. It felt like his thoughts were racing, tearing at his insides, and there was no hope to sleep through it.

And then he realized that he had to get them out before he bled to death from the wounds they caused.

Kokichi didn’t bother dressing, knowing that he wasn’t about to go anywhere. His hair stuck up in odd places, and he wore a giant t-shirt that he probably stole from Kaito at some point and sweats that may have been his but also may have once been Shuichi’s that shrunk in the wash, and he looked like he’d just woken up from a deep sleep with how he shuffled out of the room in search of his boyfriends.

He found them. Shuichi cradled a bowl of cereal behind his knees, even though Kokichi was pretty sure it was past lunchtime, and Kaito was yammering on excitedly about something he’d seen on TV. Maybe a rocket launch. He always got excited about that stuff.

When Kokichi entered however, they both fell silent.

“Kokichi, you’re up,” Shuichi spoke up first, setting the bowl aside.

Kokichi hesitated in the doorway, gaze flickering between the two of them. He felt like he was under a spotlight, being scrutinized and visually picked apart for imperfections. Normally he held up well under examination, with a carefully chosen mask of emotion over his true face, but he was so disheveled and felt so off that it made him uncomfortable for them to be staring at him like this. Even if he knew they only meant well.

Clenching his jaw, he forced his feet to move again. He still said nothing as he approached the couch and, taking in a deep breath, he flung himself down on them with open arms.

He caught them both around the shoulders, choosing to bury his face in Kaito’s.

“Kokichi?”

That one was Kaito’s voice, pressing him for an answer of some kind. Kokichi didn’t know what to say, nausea churning in his gut. Where could he even begin?

It took a great deal of effort before he could say anything. “I… need you guys.”

He felt both Kaito’s and Shuichi’s hands at his back.

“We’re right here,” Shuichi said.

“Yeah,” Kaito agreed. “Whatever you need, we’re right here.”

Kokichi nodded, but he didn’t say anything right away after that. After a minute of silence, he crawled onto the couch and turned around so that he could properly sit in between them. It comforted him to have Kaito and Shuichi pressed close on either side, love and concern emanating off of them. He felt safe.

But a little less safe when he thought about what happened to him.

“Y’know, I was just walking. By myself…” Kokichi didn’t often go out for walks on his own, and on one of the rare occasions he did, that thing happened. “It was kinda cold, but whatevs, I was just going for a quick walk anyway.”

Neither Kaito nor Shuichi said anything when Kokichi paused again. He appreciated it, and when he was ready he drew in a shaky breath.

“Then someone grabbed the back of my shirt, and yanked me back…”

Kokichi closed his eyes, pulling his legs up onto the couch to hug them to his chest. He pressed his face into his knees. It was a long time before he could speak again, his heart thumping loudly in his ears.

“…I thought I was gonna die.” Pressure built up behind his eyeballs as he tried hard not to cry. “I thought… that I was never gonna see you guys again.”

No matter how much he tried, Kokichi couldn’t continue after that. He couldn’t speak, not one word. Kaito and Shuichi wrapped their arms around him, and they sat there for what felt like a long time. Kokichi felt miserable, vulnerable, utterly pathetic as the tears began to escape, making damp splotches on the sweats-that-might’ve-been-Shuichi’s. He hated it, a part of him wished that he hadn’t said anything.

But the warmth of his boyfriends as they held him was nice. And maybe, even if he couldn’t tell them everything that had happened just yet, it was a good start anyway.


End file.
